Wow, this is just nuts. I mean really, really, “Trenberth’s missing heat is going to jump out of the ocean and get you” kind of nuts.
The website scaredscientists.com looks like this at right.
Like the wailing we saw in the hand written letters of feelings last week, this one is also from Australia. Personally, I think this is some sort of mental disorder on display coming to light because Australia has done an about-face on the carbon tax and have put a lot of climate change programs on the back burner or eliminated them altogether.
And of course, there’s an “ACT NOW” button, which is a code word to send money, but there is no mention of what that money will be used for. A list of “fears” follows with comments by me interspersed in blue.
They write in the About page:
A quick chat to the experts and it’s immediately apparent that climate change is not only real: it’s serious. Very serious.
But this isn’t what scares scientists. They’re afraid humanity will continue to bury its head in the sand; instead of facing its greatest challenge head on.
Scientists don’t want to be right, they want to be wrong. Research shows this is our last decade to slow climate change before it’s too late. The science community believe if people are willing, we can transform the current trajectory from one of fear to one of hope. But the science can only take us so far. If we want a safe and sustainable world, we need to take the facts seriously – and do what needs to be done to change them.
Source: http://scaredscientists.com/About
Here’s the big list of scared scientists:
WILL STEFFEN
Earth System Scientist
University of Florida, University of Missouri, Australian National University
FEAR: LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM
The climate is related to many parts of the Earth; the land, the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere. We’re noticing abrupt changes in all of these areas.
We’ll reach a point where we’ll lose control over the system. Right now, if we reduce our emissions, we can probably stabilise the system. If we push the climate too far, if we start losing ice too rapidly, start flipping things like the Amazon, then the internal dynamics of the climate will take over – and even if we pull emissions back, we won’t be able to stop very large changes – that’s my biggest fear.
The thing people don’t realise, is getting emissions down is not only feasible but economically promising and will actually lead to a better life. The narrative needs to change, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, it will be another massive transformation in human history, but it will lead to a cleaner environment, to more jobs, and an easier lifestyle.
We still have a chance to pull back climate change, but we need to act vigorously and we need to act soon.
(Funny, I never knew any scientist who said we were “in” control of the climate, much less lost control of it. The hubris on display here could fill a stadium.)
LESLEY HUGHES
Ecologist, Macquarie University, Sydney
FEAR: SPECIES EXTINCTION
My work on the potential impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems has made it clear that the human species is now threatened.
We need to acknowledge the time lag between what we do to the atmosphere and its impacts on the climate. What we do now, affects the climate decades into the future. This means we need to drastically cut our emissions, now and forever, to stabilise the climate in the second half of the century.
(Odd, she doesn’t seem frightened at all. Good luck stabilizing the climate though, because in the entire history of the planet, the climate has never been stable.)
![next%20ice%20age[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/next20ice20age1.jpg?quality=83)
TIM FLANNERY
Mammologist, Palaeontologist
University of New South Wales,
Monash University, La Trobe University
FEAR: DISRUPTION OF GLOBAL CIVILISATION
Climate Science underestimated the pace of climate change, it was too conservative. We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected. Change that if not slowed, will undoubtedly affect my children and my grandchildren.
There is genuine potential for a change in climate to disrupt our global civilisation. If that happens, we know human nature has a dark side, people will fight over an ever diminishing resource pool, and that is a future we want to avoid.
This decade is critical, it is our last chance to prevent our children from that type of world. We have to make significant progress and get the global emissions trajectory turning downwards. That is the urgent task at hand.
(I think maybe Tim has been smoking the same thing that always-wrong doomster Paul Ehrlich has been smoking. “We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected.” Hmmm. I suppose he must not know about ‘the pause’ and all the excuses being made for it.)
SARAH PERKINS
Extreme weather researcher
University of New South Wales
FEAR: INCREASE IN EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
As the background climate warms due to human activity, this increases the frequency and intensity of hot temperature events. I am concerned about how the very broad and damaging impacts of heatwaves will affect human health, infrastructure, agriculture, and natural systems. By the time we realise we need to make changes and start to put these changes in place, it might not be enough to balance out the range of catastrophes we will be facing.
(This lady should read my 2014 paper with Michaels and Knappenberger to understand heat waves, plus my essay on how technology and reporting bias figure in to extreme weather fears. She should also spend some time reading why some of the much touted heat waves have nothing at all to do with “climate change”.)
MATTHEW ENGLAND
Oceanographer, Climate scientist,
University of NSW, Sydney
FEAR: CLIMATE INDUCED GLOBAL CONFLICT
Accelerated warming and expansion of water in the oceans, and increased melting rates of glaciers and ice caps are expected to increase sea levels by a metre or more over the next 100 years. This will pose a decisive threat to the existence of human settlements, infrastructures and industries across the world that are close to the shore lines. Those environmental degradations will aggravate global conflict as tens of millions of people migrate and their food supplies become threatened.
We need to understand that the cost of solving the problem is so much less than the cost of dealing with it down the track; that cost is going to be huge for future generations. Not dealing with it is selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene. It represents such a level of injustice as those that are going to be impacted are not playing a role in the decisions that are being made now.
(Hmmm, the only climate wars I’m aware of are those being fought in the mind of Michael Mann, who fits England’s description of “selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene” pretty well.)
SHAUNA MURRAY
Biological Scientist
University of Technology Sydney, University of Tokyo, University of New South Wales
FEAR: REACHING THE FOUR DEGREES OF WARMING
We’ve recorded all sorts of climate change shifts in multiple areas. However, the scientific process is consistent. Every single individual study that has been done, has gone through the same rigorous process, data collection, research analysis, and qualified peer review. At the moment, we’ve at least 10 000 different papers, completed over 20 years, each using different data sets, and they are all coming to the same climate change conclusions. We’ve a weight of evidence that the average person is simply not aware of – and this frightens me.
I’d like to think that we’re not going to reach the projected four degrees of warming this century; because I can’t even imagine what that would look like. 80 years is not that long, and unless we act soon, my seven year old daughter will probably have to live through that.
(Apparently she only reads the papers that scare the crap out of her. Or maybe Skeptical Science, who posted this graph:
Meanwhile, The BBC reports ‘the pause’ may go on for another 10 years or more.)
PETER MACREADIE
Marine Ecologist
University of Technology Sydney, Deakin University
FEAR: GLOBAL CATASTROPHE
IPCC predicts that the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic. This affects everybody. Nobody is safe. We’re going to lose low lying countries, there will be a loss of live stock, potential wide spread famine and species extinction.
One thing people need to remember, is that scientists are the biggest skeptics on Earth. We’re constantly trying to disprove each other. This is the one thing we agree on. The evidence is endless. We’re not making this up, this is really serious, we’re very concerned and there’s not enough being done about it. We really need to be pushing our governments. Let’s not look back and regret what we’ve done.
(“Nobody is safe“, and this guy has the temerity to suggest scientists like him are the “biggest skeptics on Earth”? Wow. )
PENELOPE AJANI
Biological Scientist
University of Macquarie, Sydney
FEAR: UNKNOWN REPERCUSSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The scientific community know sea levels will rise, people will be displaced and food resources will diminish. But I work on the small things, the ocean’s plankton, and we are already seeing climate shifts in these organisms. How those changes will affect the global ocean is something we really can’t answer – and that scares me. For example, the fact that we’re seeing tropical species all the way down the east coast of Australia, means massive changes are occurring. However, we currently can’t predict the exact impact of these shifts.
Another example is that climate change will create winners and losers, there’ll be some species that get wiped out and some that will become prolific. Will it be the toxic algal species that are going to survive?
There will come a time when we need to have answers, when these changes will greatly challenge humanity.
(Any biologist who thinks that life is a static enterprise really should go back to school. Like climate, life changes. It also evolves, and adapts.)
Each “scared scientist” vignette ends with:
If you think these facts are frightening, help us change them.
Take action here
I’ll point out that there isn’t a hard sciences person in this group, and not a one of them appears to have any basic meteorological training, much less any climate science training. In their case, ignorance is not bliss, but a ticket to being scared out of their wits.
You gotta love the black and white photography and the caricatures of dark doom the portraits exude. It looks more like “performance art” than science.
Note the website traffic rank:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/scaredscientists.com
Nearly 15 million. Wow, off the scale of lower than low.
Meanwhile, WUWT is at:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wattsupwiththat.com
Lower traffic rank numbers are better, for example Google is #1. This comparison says a lot:
Finally, about that money they ask for when you “act now”, I wonder if it ends up here? Gotta love the domain registrar they use, quite appropos.
==================================================
Domain Name: SCAREDSCIENTISTS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1801341743_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.syrahost.com
Registrar URL: http://www.crazydomains.com
Updated Date: 2014-08-08T02:08:31+08:00
Creation Date: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+08:00
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-05-15T00:00:00+08:00
Registrar: CRAZY DOMAINS FZ-LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 1291
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +61.894220890
Reseller: CRAZY DOMAINS
Domain Status: ok
Registry Registrant ID: 12093151
Registrant Name: RACHEL GUEST
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 6/5-13 LARKIN ST
Registrant City: CAMPERDOWN
Registrant State/Province: NSW
Registrant Postal Code: 2050
Registrant Country: AU
Registrant Phone: +61.299944154
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +.
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
==================================================
In case anyone gets bent out of shape for me posting that info, I’ll point out it is public domain information, available to anyone who makes a WHOIS query, like this one:
http://whois.domaintools.com/scaredscientists.com
Anyway, good luck with the gloom and doom Rachel, you’ll need it to get past the laughing, especially after your last flop, the Years of Living Dangerously, which tanked in ratings after burning through several million dollars in production costs.
@Steve in SC
“In a sane world, these cats would have every right to be scared — of going to jail for such attempted flim flannery.
(pun intended)”
For some reason I read that as “flim flatulence.”
Might be more appropriate for the situation, though, no?
Thanks to Betapug I went to http://cheersbeaucoup.com/, read their entry on the scared scientists, then sent the following to them:
*******************
Greetings-
Please read everything, including the comments, at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/24/newest-scam-donate-money-to-help-alleviate-the-fears-of-scared-scientists/.
You may wish to drop those scared scientists as clients (unless the money is too enticing).
Best regards.
Ian L. McQueen
Glenwood, NB [Canada]
All Aussies. Aren’t these guys the ones that are in the direct path of the investigation over the fudged temperature (adjusted) numbers? You bet they are scared. This is probably their new retirement plan. Especially Flannery.
AGU must be burning through the membership and publications revenues to bank roll Hansen and Mann and their vacation homes (i.e. “legal fees”) that AGU has to go to Oz for help.
Ha ha AGU, pbhssst
Over the past 20 years these people have abused the childhoods of countless children, ironically doing it “for the children,” until some children are so freaked out they don’t want to go into the woods, because they are so sure they will “harm nature” if they even walk between the trees. Rather than loving nature, because they played in her arms as they grew, they have a completely estranged relationship with nature.
If these people really want to raise money they should “do it for the children” they have abused. Then they should go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect $200.00.
It’s not about losing the grant money! That’s just gravy. That’s just confirmation. It’s about not having a consensus to bolster their “raw amygdala”. As nice as charts and graphs are, it doesn’t touch these people, they are ineffective. Logic does not work on them, they have to have confirmation of their beliefs and feelings in order to avoid total breakdown (depending on how out of touch each one is). An excellent blog series on this is:
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/touching-the-raw-amygdala-part-i-foundational-understandings/
If these scientists have had control of the climate – as they are apparently claiming – then maybe we should bring a class action law suit against them for the tornado damage and flood damage and other weather induced damage done over the past several years. After all, if they control weather system they should have arranged to squash this kind of damage over populated areas.
Some people call themself experts and have managed to make media as well as politians believe it to…… Had been better had they started from scratch learning about Theories of Science – basic knowledge but that would of course take too much of their time to read, learn and understand 🙂
I’m reminded of Steve McIntyre’s quote of a year ago, in part:
“….In my opinion, most climate scientists on the Team would have been high school teachers in an earlier generation – if they were lucky. Many/most of them have degrees from minor universities. It’s much easier to picture people like Briffa or Jones as high school teachers than as Oxford dons of a generation ago. Or as minor officials in a municipal government……”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/04/quote-of-the-week-high-school-climate-science/
I would never send a kid of mine to one of the dozens of “progressive” unis in Australia. The retracted papers, the Ship of Fools, the ‘centre of excellence in climate science’ (imagine the hubris of these low talents) …. and now this disgrace. It’s tough enough to choose a school of higher learning anywhere but Australia is definitely not on my list.
Oh and the black and white? Note that there are equal numbers of men and women in the group. How sensitive of them.
Their fear comes from their growing understanding that they can’t control nature and they cAnt control the debate here in Oz …..they are control freaks with no control …..fear turning into pathology is happening (unfortunately) …some Australians are good at hitching a ride on a trend and taking it to it’s absurd limits
Lesley Hughes is studying the “potential” impacts of climate change while Flannery claims We’re now having “far more rapid change” than originally projected.
So is “climate change” potentially impacting us or actually impacting us. These people don’t even appear to have their story straight.
The Universities paying these fools need to be embarrassed by these unscientific rants. They are destroying what little credibility these institutions have left.
When I saw this, my reaction was much like Anthony’s – answer it point by point. And I really did go out of my way to be kind to these “scared scientists.” But, I fear, my responses are rather less printable than our genial host’s.
FEAR: LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM
Totally agree; we need to take control of the climate system, just as I do when I’m driving my car. When it’s hot, I turn on the air-con. When it’s cold, I turn on the heater. When I’m feeling blue, I set the heated seat to max. Heh heh.
FEAR: SPECIES EXTINCTION
Totally agree, again. “Global warming” policies are extinguishing many of our species – like old people in the UK who can’t afford to heat their homes. Getting rid of those policies will make life better for our species, not worse.
Oh wait… now I understand what species you’re talking about. And it isn’t us.
FEAR: DISRUPTION OF GLOBAL CIVILISATION
Look, you’re right here as well. Global civilization (why can’t Aussies spell?) needs fast, convenient transport of people and goods. Planes R Us!
And given the size of your beautiful country, you Aussies should be their biggest supporters. Hell, I used to do projects for Qantas and Jetabout more than 25 years ago.
FEAR: INCREASE IN EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
There’s only one good way to deal with extreme weather events. It’s not to be there when it happens.
And you want to deny us our ability to get out of the way?
FEAR: CLIMATE INDUCED GLOBAL CONFLICT
When you’ve got rid of all politics-induced conflict – Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Palestine and all the rest – come back and I’ll consider your application.
FEAR: REACHING THE FOUR DEGREES OF WARMING
Hey, you’re almost right again! Only one difficulty. Warming isn’t the problem. At least, not 4 degrees Centigrade. And certainly not if it’s only in winter and at night – as your models tell us, don’t they?
Four degrees of cooling, on the other hand…
FEAR: GLOBAL CATASTROPHE
What? You warmists don’t fear global catastrophe. You want to cause it! You want to destroy Western civilization, freedom, prosperity and the future of the entire human race.
FEAR: UNKNOWN REPERCUSSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
My fear: damned obvious repercussions of policies you want to impose on us. Totalitarianism, poverty, deaths of innocent people.
You don’t care about my fears; so why should I care about yours?
From the article: “We’ll reach a point where we’ll lose control over the system.”
It’s comforting to know that we have control of the climate system now. I wonder where the control panel is and who gets to turn the dials. After reading the article, I’m pretty sure each of the dials goes up to 11 and that Michael Mann sneaks in each night and turns them all to max.
The organisation behind the ScaredScientists calls itself The Climate Council.
One could therefore also call them the Soviet Of Climate. (Soviet = Council; and of course we need to drop the article as Russian doesn’t have them)
Since climate science is more religion than science I though sacredscientists.com would be more appropriate, I just can’t decide where to point the domain.
What should be emphasised over and over is that just because you know something about climate science does not mean you are qualified to predict the economic consequences of your projections/conclusions. My take on the 1 metre sea level rise in the next 100 years is that 1 centimetre a year would be fairly easy to deal with, even in developing countries.
Perhaps we would be better to say to the warmists, OK, you predict 2 – 4 degrees C temperature rise,lets debate the consequuences, benefits, losses, gains, social impacts, etc. This could take the arguement out of the warmist vs denier stalemate.
Ribro90
August 25, 2014 at 11:47 am
Perhaps we would be better to say to the warmists, OK, you predict 2 – 4 degrees C temperature rise,lets debate the consequuences, benefits, losses, gains, social impacts, etc. This could take the arguement out of the warmist vs denier stalemate.
Why give up ground we’ve already won? They are running scared now, flailing desperately and grasping at flimsy straws. The end (of the climate wars) is truly nigh.
Gary Pearse
August 25, 2014 at 10:06 am
I’m reminded of Steve McIntyre’s quote of a year ago, in part:
“….In my opinion, most climate scientists on the Team would have been high school teachers in an earlier generation – if they were lucky. Many/most of them have degrees from minor universities. It’s much easier to picture people like Briffa or Jones as high school teachers than as Oxford dons of a generation ago. Or as minor officials in a municipal government……”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/04/quote-of-the-week-high-school-climate-science/
I would never send a kid of mine to one of the dozens of “progressive” unis in Australia. The retracted papers, the Ship of Fools, the ‘centre of excellence in climate science’ (imagine the hubris of these low talents) …. and now this disgrace. It’s tough enough to choose a school of higher learning anywhere but Australia is definitely not on my list.
===========================================
Anthony,
Forgive me but I have used Wikipedia entries when they occur on the presumption, rightly or wrongly, that the individuals will monitor their entries to accurately reflect themselves.
——————————————————————————
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Steffen
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/contributors/lesley-hughes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Flannery
https://theconversation.com/profiles/sarah-perkins-58472
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_England
also google search – au andrew bolt matthew england
https://theconversation.com/profiles/shauna-murray-112963
https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-macreadie-1080
http://unsw.academia.edu/PenelopeAjani
and to finish,
Emeritus professor Garth Paltridge, a former CSIRO chief research scientist, warns climate scientists hungry for power, fame and funding could have utterly trashed the reputation of science. They may have “been drawn into the trap of seriously overstating the climate problem … to promote the cause”.
“It risks destroying, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society’s respect for scientific endeavour.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Paltridge
Poe’s law at work, “it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.”
Also, congratulations on the new theme, looks very nice.
Awww, but http://www.saveyourassrescue.org is a more deserving cause.
The game is over, the funding will run out and they’ll have to find JOBS. Yes, they’re scared.
I think this is the result of our government defunding the entire bunch to get them off the public teat. They are now suckling on some private teat (not sure who), and obviously they are making up their own strategy.
I just hope the general Australian public are not too thick to be taken in, and go find some facts instead. I have long since ceased arguing the topic with people, I now tell them to go and find some facts, and counterpoints to those ‘facts’ (from either side of the argument), and come back and discuss it when you have more information than the MSM dish out. Nobody has so far.
Money, used for?
Therapy?
Drugs?
This reminds me of the episode in Big bang Theory where Leonard, Raj and Howard are camping in the desert and the eat cookies laced with pot. Leonard is staring at the sky and says he can feel the Earth moving. Then he starts freaking out and says it’s moving too fast. Raj squints his eyes and slows it down.